Despite its posturing as the helpless colonial victim of powerful corporations and the federal government, the West isn’t so much weak as it is passive. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.18/download-entire-issue
The West lacks social glue
Posted inSeptember 12, 1988: The Reopening of the Western Frontier, Part 1
War on the Colorado Plateau
In the 1970s, all that stood between the people of southeastern Utah and their dreams of high paying jobs in the mineral and energy industries, was the federal government and its wilderness study areas. In this first of a four-part series, Ray Wheeler describes how southeastern Utah routed the feds and, for all practical purposes, […]
Posted inSeptember 12, 1988: The Reopening of the Western Frontier, Part 1
During the boom, Idaho succumbed to good sense
Lest you think that the entire West succumbed to the hypnotic beat of boom, boom, boom, here is an account of how the conservative state of Idaho behaved conservatively — resisting the lure of a coal-fired power plant that was to carry the state to the land of milk and honey. Download entire issue to […]
Posted inSeptember 12, 1988: The Reopening of the Western Frontier, Part 1
The rural West is actually very urban
The West is empty, but it’s not rural. In fact, it is the most urban of all regions, with most of its population living in a few large metropolitan areas. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.17/download-entire-issue
Posted inSeptember 12, 1988: The Reopening of the Western Frontier, Part 1
The rural West: An artifact of the 19th century
This essay examines the blend of economic and social defenses that has kept the West on its own track for the past century. To read this article, click the “View a PDF from the original” link below, or download the entire issue: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.17/download-entire-issue This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the […]
Posted inSeptember 12, 1988: The Reopening of the Western Frontier, Part 1
The reopening of the Western Frontier
Thanks to a mixture of geography, climate and natural resources, the rural West became the domain of a particular way of life that has lasted for 100 years. But today its economies are in retreat, and the Western frontier is reopening. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.17/download-entire-issue
Posted inSeptember 12, 1988: The Reopening of the Western Frontier, Part 1
Good fences make good calluses
To an economist, this is a subversive piece because it talks about the meaning of work, rather than about the price of labor and material. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.17/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 29, 1988: Backhoe roots around in Indian graves
Idaho nuclear lab faces massive cleanup
The Department of Energy predicts it will take 20 years to remove the haphazardly dumped material that has already contaminated the Snake River Plain Aquifer with toxic organic chemicals and has leaked plutonium into deep sediments below the site. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.16/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 29, 1988: Backhoe roots around in Indian graves
Save the forests: Let them burn
There is no getting around this ecological fact of life: Within nearly all forest communities of the Rocky Mountains, fires are essential form maintaining a healthy ecosystem. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.16/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 29, 1988: Backhoe roots around in Indian graves
Backhoe roots around in Indian graves
After nearly a century of neglect and vandalism, an area called Fourmile Ruin near Taylor, Ariz., is being excavated, not in a search for information about its original inhabitants but for its valuable pottery. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.16/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 15, 1988: Growing up among the ruins in Blanding, Utah
Hikers versus telescopes versus squirrels
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service releases its Biological Opinion on the effects of telescopes on the Mount Graham red squirrel, an endangered species. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.15/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 15, 1988: Growing up among the ruins in Blanding, Utah
Growing up among the ruins in Blanding, Utah
How do you explain what it is like to be able to walk five miles in any direction from town and find a rubble mound or masonry ruin? Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.15/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 1, 1988: City slickers strike it rich in South Dakota
Water marketing is becoming respectable
Water marketing is increasing because of the rising cost of water and public resistance to dams. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.14/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 1, 1988: City slickers strike it rich in South Dakota
Rangers are dangerous: Do not annoy or feed them
This is a practical survival guide to the national parks, with down-to-earth advice on how to co-exist with park rangers. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.14/download-entire-issue
Posted inAugust 1, 1988: City slickers strike it rich in South Dakota
City slickers strike it rich in South Dakota
A plan to invigorate the state’s economy by taking sewage ash from the Twin Cities backfires. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.14/download-entire-issue
Posted inJuly 18, 1988: Can nuclear waste be salted away?
O’Toole is the Adam Smith of forest economics
O’Toole has done all of us, including the Forest Service, a great favor. His genius and hard work have shown us that the national forests are governed by a welter of laws whose purpose and workings are exactly the same as those of the 1872 Mining Law. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.13/download-entire-issue
Posted inJuly 18, 1988: Can nuclear waste be salted away?
Rhythms of the forest
We need to expand our view of time, give natural events more space and look for the heartbeats that keep it all running. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.13/download-entire-issue
Posted inJuly 18, 1988: Can nuclear waste be salted away?
Can nuclear waste be salted away?
All is not well with the nation’s first planned nuclear-waste dump, the Waste Isolation Pilot Project. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.13/download-entire-issue
Posted inJune 20, 1988: Parks are increasingly vulnerable
Wyoming elk antlers head for the Orient
During its 20-year history, the annual Boy Scout Elk Antler Auction, held each spring in Jackson, Wyo., has slowly become dominated by antler traders from the Orient who export the horns to Korea and transform them into wafer-sized aphrodisiacs or medicinal teas. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.12/download-entire-issue
Posted inJune 20, 1988: Parks are increasingly vulnerable
Will Wyoming’s Clark Fork remain wild?
Proposals to designate the river as “wild and scenic” run into lingering proposals for dams. Download entire issue to view this article: http://www.hcn.org/issues/20.12/download-entire-issue